House on the road to Farellones / Max Nuñez & Bernardo Valdes

Architects: Max Núñez B., Bernardo Valdés E.
Location: Camino a Farellones, Santiago, Chile
Collaborator: Nicolás del Río L.
Site Area: 7000 mts2
Constructed Area: 230 mts2
Project Year: 2004/2005
Construction Year: 2005/2006

The design proceeds from the particularities of the terrain, its slope, its vegetation, its views and the requirements of the client, a single man who permitted the architects to redefine the program of a single-family house and to turn it into a single-person one in a spot that allows him to get away from the city and to live in a close relationship with the landscape of the Andean foothills.

The topography is interrupted by an 8×36m horizontal plane running north-south against the slope. The platform generates a stable and continuous surface area that includes a guest room, a patio, a pavilion, a terrace and a pool, which occupy its entire length.

The heavy surface of the patio, raised 70cm above the level of the platform, is defined by the base of a pre-existing hawthorn tree. The pavilion is a glass enclosure beneath a light-weight roof, dark in color, an almost empty space from where the gaze traverses the glass in the direction of the foothills, the deep valley, the pines and the space immediately outside, taking in every field of vision the terrain offers.

The pavillion harnesses the sun but controls it by means of eaves and curtains. Two sliding windows, one in the north and the other in the south, enable the pavilion to be ventilated by making use of the wind that comes up through the valley. Hanging over the slope, the terrace and the reflecting pool completely open up the landscape. The water reflects the light on the ceiling of the pavilion and keeps things fresh in the high summer temperatures.